White Papers
DDi, as a full-service boutique translation and localization company, regularly researches and authors reports on global occurrences and trends that can affect the strategic direction of translation companies specifically, and businesses in general.
The Rosetta Stone
January, 2012
The Rosetta Stone language software is widespread. I have travelled through numerous airports and stumbled across their kiosks with the yellow box and the little blue stone. I have even used Rosetta Stone, and I do like it; however, one gets the impression from the advertisements and the testimonials that Rosetta Stone makes learning a new language easy. If one knows the tale of the stone itself, one might reassess the ease of study given its history.
First, some background:
Languages have been around for perhaps a hundred thousand years. How many languages have existed in the past? We do not know. Part of the reason we have no idea is that there is no record.
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The Rhythms of Phonemes
December, 2011
To reach out to more people we often have to know more than one language. Learning another language later in life is hard work, but knowing something of the nature of how we learn languages can help in the process.
We are extremely social creatures. We are instinctively gregarious. One may disagree, but first try being isolated for any period of time. It is not easy. Is it any wonder that isolation is used as a form of torture in prisons?
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How Fragile is our Knowledge Base?
November, 2011
One of the questions I have wondered is: how fragile is our knowledge base? This can be seen even in the modern world of business. A company has many employees who have helped build the company from the beginning. They not only have the knowledge of what brought them to success, but a knowledge base of what works and what doesn’t down to the smallest detail.
Because knowledge is invisible it is not even noticed when it walks out the door having been offered early retirement in order to reduce expenses. Not only does this knowledge disappear, but whole standards of ethics and standards of excellence simply vanish. How much is that worth? If it is expensive on a small scale, how costly is it on an even larger one?
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Language and Extinction
October, 2011
The subject of language is fascinating and complex. Working in the language translation field, I often find myself wondering about the whole subject of language. There are many varieties. Too many for one person to know although the illustrious Emil Krebs of the late 19th century seems to have learned to speak and write 68 languages and was familiar with an additional 120 while working in diplomatic circles in China just before WWI.
There does seem to be hope for me that Spanish will become my second language before too long. After all, if someone can learn 68, I should be able to master two, if not three.
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The Push Button Translation
September, 2011
I have been learning Spanish. It has been both thoroughly satisfying and frustrating, but it has allowed me to explore how we as humans learn a new language and then compare the experience with how machines translate one language into another. I even found out there is a whole field that deals with this subject. It is called, not uncharacteristically, Machine Translation. It is a branch of Computational Linguistics and is loosely categorized under Artificial Intelligence.
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Social Media and Translations
July, 2011
One of the business decisions that most business owners have wrestled with recently is whether to go with social media as a means of potentially increasing business. When our web designer mentioned that we ought to open a Twitter account, get on Facebook, and get a blog going on our website, I must admit I asked myself and those around me what I considered to be the big question: Does all this social media stuff actually work? Can a company really increase sales significantly using such networks?
The answers I got back fell into three categories:
Yes, No and That depends.
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The Contagion of Ideas
June, 2011
By equating the spread of ideas with that of the contagion of disease and examining their similarities and differences, one can gain a better understanding of how ideas permeate through society, and how one can get one’s own ideas across to others more effectively and to more people.
Certainly ideas can be infectious. A fad, for example, seems to sweep through a society just like a disease. Consumers get the idea that that they have to have the new X gadget from a well known brand. When the release date approaches, lines stretch outside the store awaiting the new gadget. New owners show their friends their new purchase, and their friends have to have one just like it. Before long everybody has one. The point here is not that the new gadget is harmful, but that the idea of "want" and "need" spreads from person to person in a way similar to an airborne virus. In some cases, people cannot stop thinking about the new gadget and feel compelled to go out and get it no matter what. It might even be said to involuntarily infect their minds. There are fascinating similarities.
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Should Translations Be Free?
May, 2011
Frankly I don’t think translations should be free, but then I am biased. I work for a company that specializes in translation.
Digital content seems to be trending in the "free translation" direction. On the Internet, we are now able to acquire digital music and digital books for free, and we can even browse newspapers at no cost. This appears to make a case for the title of a book I saw recently: "Free: The Future of a Radical Price" by Chris Anderson.
'No cost' content certainly seems to have a future, and if translations simply add cost where there is none to begin with, then why pay for translations at all?
I think this is a fair question.
So, what is the argument for free digital content?
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Currency Flows and Translations
April, 2011
Where and when to best concentrate one's business efforts depends not only on what one's company produces but also on the global business climate that exists at the time. One of the least known areas that influence business is the ebb and flow of funds between countries and the resulting exchange rates.
On the surface it would seem fairly simple: when sociopolitical conditions are favorable money is attracted into a particular country. Under conditions of turmoil money is repelled and the value of its currency goes down in relation to others.
Where people throw up their hands in exasperation is when the exact opposite occurs. At that point, there seems no point in risking one's business in a country whose currency valuations defy logic. The solution may seem to drop that country and the subject of global trade completely from the business strategy.
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Are You Missing Out On The Market Growth Potential Of The Hispanic Community?
September, 2010
We know the Hispanic market is growing – but by how much? And how does that translate into dollars and the expansion of your brand?
According to the latest edition of Languages of the World there are about 329 million speakers of Spanish as a first language, making Spanish the second most natively spoken language after Mandarin Chinese.
Spanish is the official language of over 20 countries mostly located in Latin America.
Presently, while Europe and the United States are facing large deficits and slow economic recovery, Latin America is expected to post 4.5 percent year over year growth in 2010 (World Bank estimate).